Finger-Stick Artifactual Hypoglycemia in the Emergency Department: A Case Report.

Background: Artifactual hypoglycemia is a low glucose measurement in a normoglycemic patient. Patients in a shock state or with extremity hypoperfusion can metabolize a higher proportion of the glucose in the poorly perfused tissue, and blood obtained from those tissues may have far lower glucose concentration than the blood in the central circulation.

Case Report: We present the case of a 70-year-old woman with systemic sclerosis, progressive functional decline, and cool digital extremities.